Water is a transnational and limited collective good.

The earth has an estimated 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water (in liquid and frozen forms). The same amount as it has had for millions of years. Water cannot be created or destroyed. It only migrates.

The hydrologic cycle = how water circulates through the earth’s systems.

· Atmospheric moisture (rain)
· Oceans, rivers, lakes
· Groundwater
· Subterranean aquifers
· Polar icecaps
· Saturated soil (wetlands)

97% is ocean water. Freshwater is 2.5 % of total but not all accessable

Why is water so important?

People need water for drinking, sanitation, food production, industry, energy.

How much do we need?

Hydrologists have recommended to UNESCO that they adopt a policy of “human entitlement” of 50 liters of water per person per day. Drinking water = 5; sanitation = 20; bathing water = 15; food preparation = 10. Total = 50

Malin Fralkenmark, a prominent hydrologist has recommended that 1,700 cubic meters per person per year

US and Canada use 1,693 cubic meters per person per year
Oceania 907
Europe 726
Asia 526
South America 376
Africa 244

Drinking water

· 1.4 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water
· 40% of the world’s population carry their water from wells, rivers, or ponds to their homes
· Over 90% of Africans dig for their water
· Mexico City has been pumping groundwater so substantially that parts of the city have fallen 20 meters and they are bringing water from 300 kilometers away and pumping it uphill

Sanitation

Over 2.9 billion have no access to sanitation services
disease

Food Production

It takes 1,100 cubic meters to grow food needed for one person’s annual low meat

The Politics of Water

What problems are there?

The problems arise from overpopulation, location, and quality. There are too many people vying for this shared resource, too little water in the places we want it, too much in the places we don’t, too much salt or pollutants.

Where are conflicts likely to arise?

· water supply is static or falling
· there is a dependency on water from outside national boundaries
· rainfall is meager
· populations are increasing at a significant rate
· incompatible demands for water – competition between agriculture, industry, population
· Over 300 river systems cross national boundaries. Most of the world’s major rivers are not contained within the borders of one state.

Who owns water?
International Law Association (ILA) 1873
Institut de Droit International (IDI) 1873
International Law Commission (ILC) 34 members elected by UN General Assembly

States are entitled to “equitable utilization” sovereign rights are limited by right of use of others sharing the same water source.

ILC “A watercourse state may not justify a use that causes appreciable harm to another watercourse state on the ground that the use is equitable in the absence of agreement between the states concerned.”

Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) and the Jordan Basin
· Jordan Riperians are Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan share the same water resources

· Israel receives 2/3 of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. Jordan receives ¾ from the same basin. Most of this water (2/3) originates in territory now controlled through military conquest – the Golan Heights and the West Bank.

· The Jordan River begins in 3 streams: the Hasbani River in Syria with some outflow in Lebanon, The Dan and Bayanias Rivers in Golan Heights (occupied in 1967, annexed in 1981) flow into Sea of Galilee. The Lower Jordan is feed by springs and the Yarmuk River in Syria. 30% of the water in this region is from rivers, Mountain, Eastern and Coastal aquifers are the rest. Mountain aquifers gives Israel ¼ of its water supply

· Huleh Marshes – once Syrian territory, it became part of Israel in the Partition Plan of 1948 as a demilitarized zone. 7 year plan of 1953 Settlers would drain the marshes, establish kibbutzim, divert war from the Jordan to the Negev Desert. Construction of Bernot Ya’akov Bridge in 1953 halted after Syria objected and US sanctions against Israel.

· Syria and Jordan started to build storage dam along the Yarmuk River at Makarin with US support in 1953. Israel objected and UN withdrew support.

· In 1953 Israel published a new 10 year plan with details on the National Water Carrier Project. The diversion of water would now begin at Eshrd Kinort on the Northwestern side of the Sea of Galilee.

· In 1959 Syria with support of the Arab League proposed to build storage dams on tributaries of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers, the Banyias and the Dan. In 1961 is was approved by the legislature, in 1964 construction began. Violent skirmishes on the borders began in 1964. In 1967, two months before the war, Israel bombed the dams. Syria bombed Israeli villages.

· The Six-Day War (June 5-10, 1967) Arab-Israeli war had its roots in water politics as much as national security

· Jordan has less water than any other country in the Middle East. It relies on Israel for access to the Jordan River and Syria for the Yarmouk. Some towns only receive water twice a week

· Israel relies heavily on the aquifer under the West Bank. From the Six Day War in 1967 until 1982, all water resources were under military control. Since 1982 the National Water Carrier is in charge.

“It is permissible to deny an applicant a permit, revoke or amend a liscense, without giving any explanation. The appropriate authorities may search and confiscate any water resources for which no permit exists, even if the owner has not been convicted.”

4% of the Arab farms are irrigated on the West Bank. Palestinians may dig wells to a depth of 140 meters, Jews may dig to 800 meters

· There are similar problems in the Gaza strip supplied by the coastal Gaza aquifer. 40 kilometers by 10 kilometers, a population of almost a million people, less than 1% are Jewish, the rest are Sunni Muslim Arabs. Despite high infant mortality rate, population is increasing 5% a year. About 1/3 of the population live in UN run refugee camps. Salin intrusion due to overpumping. Pesticides and fertilizers for citrus crops. Little or no sewage in refugee camps. In 1995 Gaza Palestinians paid $1.20 per cubic meter, Israeli settlers 10 cents.

· 1994 treaty to end the War between Israel and Jordan, establish diplomatic ties, each country was given a specific amount of water. They approved financing of Unity Dam on the Yarmuk. Israel agreed to divert water from the upper Jordan to Jordan in summer.

· Litani River – since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 to control guerrilla bases and maintain a security zone, it has access to the Litani River – a farm purer source of water with 2ppm salinity compared to Sea of Galilee at 300ppm.